Return to Oakhaven
by thequeenxofhearts
Summary: The gang return to Oakhaven for the funeral of local pharmacist, Mr McKnight, and they find themselves in another mystery. Rated T to be safe.


Return of the Witch's Ghost

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

* * *

"Thanks for coming gang." Thorn said.

The gang sat around a table with the Hex Girls in the local bar.

"Sorry about your father, Thorn, he was a nice man." Velma said, Thorn nodded. "He was the greatest."

"So, Daphne, is that your sister?" Luna asked, the gang looked over at Sara, who stood at the bar with Shaggy, ordering another round of drinks.

"Yeah, it's a _long_ story." Daphne said. "Is there something going on between those two?" Thorn asked. "Not really. Shaggy likes Sara, but it seems that Sara hasn't noticed, or she knows but just hasn't done anything about it." Daphne said.

The gang noticed Dusk looking at Shaggy, and when Daphne said that Shaggy liked Sara, Dusk's eyes narrowed.

"Anything else?" Thorn asked, smiling at Fred and Daphne. "And, Daphne and I are getting married." Fred said, Luna's eyes widened, and Dusk's jaw dropped. "I told you there was something going on." Thorn said.

"So, have you set a date?" Luna asked. "Actually yes." Daphne said, "September 7th, we're getting married in a chapel in Buffalo and then we're having a party at my dad's house." She said.

"Hey, autumn weddings are beautiful, the fall colours are just so warm." Thorn said.

"Is that Mayor Corey?" Velma asked, looking over at the bar. "Yeah, well, he's not the Mayor anymore, he retired 2-years-ago." Dusk said. "He looks good." Velma said. "Yeah, he lost loads of weight and now he owns the history museum on the other side of town." Thorn said.

"History museum?" Fred asked, "I don't remember a history museum."

"There wasn't one when you were here, it was built about 3 or 4-years ago. When his mother died, she left him her money and he used it to build the museum." Thorn said. "It's where the book is kept."

"You mean, Sarah Ravencroft's Spell book?" Daphne asked, the Hex Girls nodded.

"Oh, hello girls. Gang! It's so good to see you!" The former Mayor said, he was still jolly; perhaps he'd overheard their conversation.

"Hello Mr Corey," Fred said, he stood up to shake the man's hand. "I hear you own a new history museum?"

Mr Corey chuckled, "Oh yes. It's doing very well, very proud of it I must say. It's nice to see you back in town, shame its's under such unfortunate circumstances. So sorry about your father Miss McKnight."

"Thank you for coming Christopher." Thorn said.

* * *

"Well, I wasn't expecting any of that." Daphne said, as she climbed into the hotel bed. "Nope, not at all." Fred said.

"I can't believe it." Daphne said.

_2-hours ago_

_"Hey, is that real?" Luna asked, she noticed a tattoo that Sara had on her upper arm; a mandala style sun and moon._

_"Yeah, I got it after I left-um after I left my boyfriend." Sara said. "Hey like, we've all got tattoos too! I mean, Velma an Scoob don't." Shaggy said, excited that he had another thing in common with Sara. He rolled up his sleeves to reveal his multi-coloured left arm._

_"How long did that take?" Thorn asked._

_"How much did that cost?" Velma asked._

_"4 days, and nothing, like my cousin has a tattoo gun." Shaggy said._

_"We've all got matching tattoos." Thorn said, she and Luna rolled up their sleeves to reveal pentagrams, Dusk pulled up her shirt to show the pentagram on her hip, "My parents disapprove of tattoos, so I got it somewhere easy to hide." Dusk said._

_"Hey, like I never saw your tattoo before." Shaggy said. "We got them 3 years ago." Luna said._

_"Wait, Shaggy what do you mean, you didn't see it before? How could you have?" Daphne asked._

_Shaggy's face started to turn red and Dusk's eyes widened._

_"Huh?" Luna asked, then she gasped. The gang stared at Shaggy and the Hex Girls stared at Dusk._

_"Dusk?" Thorn asked. "Shaggy?" Fred asked. Scooby crawled under the table, sensing the tension build up, lucky though, because someone had dropped fries on the floor._

_"Ok, like the last time we were here, Dusk and I kinda sorta…"_

_"Had a one-nightstand." Sara said bluntly, sipping her drink and watching things unfold._

_"Yes exactly!" Shaggy said, a little bit too enthusiastically. He realised the gang and the Hex Girls were looking between him and Dusk._

_"Freddie, buddy, like help me out here." Shaggy said, but Fred looked at his empty glass, "Oh my goodness, I have to go to the bathroom." He said quickly and hurried to the bathroom._

_"Umm…yeah, I think I am too." Velma said awkwardly and headed to the bathroom._

_"So, when did this happen?" Luna asked. "Umm…remember after we banished the Witch's Ghost and Ben Ravencroft back into the book?" Dusk asked._

_"What?" Sara asked. "I'll tell you later." Daphne said. "Oh my god I need another drink." Sara said, "Here." Daphne said, sliding her glass to her sister._

_"So, after our concert, we all came here to celebrate remember." Dusk said. "Yeah." Thorn said._

_"Let's just remember how drunk we all were that night!" Shaggy said quickly. "I took Shaggy back to my apartment to show him my art book, because we were talking about Dicaprio and Van Ghoul and one thing led to another and it just happened." Dusk said._

_Sara cleared her throat, "It's Da Vinci and Van Gogh."_

_"Hey, I remember, the night of our concert we came here but you couldn't have gone to your apartment because we ordered a late-night pizza at my dad's house." Luna said._

_"Umm…erm." Shaggy and Dusk both muttered. "We all left together." Thorn said._

_"Oh my god." Sara said, "You guys did it in this bar's bathroom."_

_"That's so gross." Daphne muttered, rubbing her forehead. "Are you sweating?" Sara asked. "This tension is making me nervous." Daphne said._

_"Way t'go girl." Luna said, offering her bandmate a high-five. "Luna." Thorn said, sternly. "Sorry." Luna said, pulling her hand back._

* * *

Velma stood in front of the bathroom mirror brushing her short hair, she was still trying to process everything that had happened this evening; Dusk and Shaggy had a one-nightstand 5-years-ago.

It wasn't that she was jealous of Dusk, or Sara because Shaggy liked her, it was more like envy.

Velma had only ever had one relationship, which was with Beau Neville, and only lasted about 3 weeks.

She'd had crushes before, but that's all they ever were, because she was either too scared to do anything about them and it was too late, or they turned out to be crazy bad guys, like Ben Ravencroft for example.

What she really wanted was what Daphne and Fred had, who had finally set a date for their wedding.

When they were teenagers, Daphne, Fred and Shaggy were the ones to go out to parties and get drunk, and Velma chose to stay home and read. And even after they were legally allowed to drink, Velma still chose to stay at home whilst the others went out to clubs and bars.

She's proud that she's never had a hangover like the others had, one-time Shaggy arrived 2 hours late to work because he decided to walk off a hangover but ended up walking halfway around the city instead. Or the time Daphne had a backache whilst they were on a case, because she ended up sleeping in the bathtub. And when Fred forgot to fill up the Mystery Machine and they ended up calling a mechanic out to the middle of nowhere, to tow them back to the city.

Daphne had always reminded Velma that she didn't have to do anything for someone to like her, someone who _really_ likes her will come along when the time is right, 'it might take a while, but it'll happen.'

And with that, Velma climbed into bed with a new book she picked up at the service station on the way to Oakhaven; 'Our Castle by the Sea'.

* * *

"Guys come on!" Shaggy exclaimed, Fred and Daphne shot up in bed, "What? What is it? What's wrong?" Daphne asked.

"We're getting breakfast at the Diner." Sara said, poking her head around the door. "How did you guys get into our room?" Daphne asked.

"Did you forget to lock the door again?" Fred asked. "…No." Daphne said. "It was unlocked." Sara said.

Velma stepped into the room, pulling her sweater over her head, "They're still in bed, can I go back to bed?" She asked.

Fred rolled his eyes, "Give us 10 minutes and we'll be ready." He climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom.

"We'll be in the lobby." Sara said, she and the others headed down the hall.

-10 minutes later-

Fred and Daphne stepped into the lobby. They were wearing matching grey sweaters (which Mrs Jones thought was cute when she bought them for Christmas), jeans and trainers.

Velma sat in the armchair with her hood pulled over her head and trying to stay awake.

"Finally!" Sara exclaimed, "My stomach's been growling like a caged gorilla all morning!"

The gang climbed into the Mystery Machine and headed to Jack's Diner.

The diner hadn't changed since the last time the gang had been in Oakhaven. It was still small and not very busy; there was a guy drinking coffee, two old women have a morning catch up and a little girl and her parents having breakfast.

"Oh my gosh!" A familiar voice exclaimed, "What a surprise to see you guys back in town!" It was Jack, his diner hadn't changed but he had; 5 years past and he'd lost a few pounds and his hair looked shinier.

"Come for breakfast?" He asked. "Absolutely!" Shaggy, Sara and Scooby exclaimed. "Come with me." Jack chuckled, he lead the gang to a big booth, and laid the menus on the table.

"Can I get you guys any drinks?" He asked, pulling out his notepad and pen.

"Coffee please." Velma said.

"Like, I'll have an espresso, an' like Scooby'll have some water." Shaggy said.

"Cappuccino please." Sara said.

"And two lattes." Fred said.

"Oh, can mine be decaf please." Daphne asked. "Of course." Jack smiled, he wondered over to the coffee maker.

"Decaf?" Fred asked. "Yeah, I think I drink too much caffeine." Daphne said. "But like, that's how we get through the day." Shaggy said.

The gang had their drinks and ordered breakfast, and just as they were finishing the door burst open and a frantic Mr Corey rushed over to the gang.

"Oh my god! Thank god you're still here!" He exclaimed. "Like, what's up?" Shaggy asked.

"The museum was broken into last night." Mr Corey said, gasping and wiping the sweat off his forehead.

"What?" Velma asked.

"The spell book was stolen." Mr Corey said.

"What?" Fred asked. "It was the only thing that was stolen." Mr Corey said.

The gang arrived at the museum.

They saw that the big window was smashed and when they stepped inside it was clear that someone had been looking for something.

There was a woman in the store, "This is my assistant, Cassie." Mr Corey said. She had shoulder length black hair and brown eyes, she wore black jeans and a plain black t-shirt and the museums lanyard around her neck.

"Oh, Mr Corey." She said, "I looked through our inventory files and I discovered some other things were stolen too."

"Oh no, what was it?" Mr Corey said.

"Some herbs from the display shelf and the mortar and pestle." Cassie said.

"Like, why would someone steal some herbs an' a stirrin' bowl?" Shaggy asked.

"And what does it have to do with the spell book?" Daphne asked.

"I don't know." Fred said.

"Do you have a security camera?" Sara asked, Mr Corey shook his head. "We didn't think we'd need one."

"Well, this is ironic." Shaggy said.

"Let's look around for clues gang." Velma said.

"The book was on here." Mr Corey said, lifting a stand which had some fresh marks on it.

"Hey, I found this." Sara said, picking a book up off the floor, "Can I borrow this?" She asked, Mr Corey nodded, "Sure." He said.

"Why do you want an old book?" Shaggy asked. "It might be helpful." Sara said, the book was an old leathery book which had a pentagram on the front.

"Hmm…" Velma said, inspecting the book, "Maybe you're right, Sara."

"Guys, it doesn't look like there are any clues here." Fred said. "That's ok, Fred. We've got this book, so maybe we should take it back to the hotel and have a read." Velma said.

"Good idea."

* * *

"Well, this is by far the creepiest book I have ever read." Sara said. "Agreed." Velma said.

She and Sara at the table in Fred and Daphne's room. Shaggy and Scooby were watching cartoons and eating Doritos.

"But we have to keep reading it, there might be a clue in here." Velma said. "Is there a content?" Daphne asked, lying on the bed with a pillow on her face. "Yeah." Sara said. "So, why don't you just look up spells with herbs." Daphne said, Sara rolled her eyes. "We already did."

"Oh." Daphne said.

"But what we haven't looked at is resurrection spells." Velma said, turning to the content and then flipping to the page.

"Resurrection spells?" Sara asked. "I told you the story." Daphne mumbled.

"Daphne are you like, ok?" Shaggy asked, Daphne sat up. "Yes, I'm fine." She said, "I didn't sleep much last night." She said, glaring at Fred.

"What?" Fred asked. "You kept kicking the bedsheets off." Daphne said. "Because you kept rolling onto my side of the bed, and you were sweating all over me." Fred said.

"Well, it was hot last night." Shaggy said, licking Doritos cheese off his fingers, Scooby growled. "Like, I'm sorry, Scooby." Shaggy said.

"What happened?" Fred asked. "Like, it was so hot last night, Scoob had t'sleep on the floor."

"Ah, I found something!" Velma exclaimed. "A resurrection spell; uses herbs, specifically Angelica, which was stolen from the museum."

"Maybe we should stake out the museum and see if our book thief comes back for anything." Fred said.

"Like in that case, we're gonna need more Doritos." Shaggy said, "Ruh-hu." Scooby said, the empty bag hanging off his nose.

* * *

"My god I'm so hungry." Daphne mumbled. "Like, I offered you a Dorito, but you didn't want it." Shaggy said.

"Because Scooby drooled in the bag." Sara said, rubbing her growling tummy.

"Focus gang." Fred whispered.

The gang hid in a bush opposite the museum; there was police tape across the broken window and across the door. So far nothing had happened.

"Hey, someone's coming." Sara whispered.

A figure walked along the sidewalk, they couldn't see who it was because a hood was pulled over their head and they climbed over the police tape and into the museum.

"Wait here." Sara whispered. "Sara." Daphne gasped, "What are you doing?"

"Wait here." Sara said again, she climbed out of the bush and crept quietly to the broken window and peered in.

The gang could hear someone rummaging around in the museum, "That must be the person who took the book and is back for the other herbs." Velma whispered, she had read more about herbs and spices from the book and informed the gang that if the museum was going to be robbed again tonight, it would most likely be for the herbs that were left behind.

She was right.

"Guys!" Sara gasped, she jumped in front of the bush, startling Shaggy who dropped the Doritos, "Zoinks!"

"What?" Daphne asked. "The guy in the museum just vanished!" Sara exclaimed.

"What?" Fred asked, as the gang climbed out.

"I was watching them and then they just disappeared!" She exclaimed.

Fred looked into the store, Scooby crept around the back to see if anyone had snuck out, but there was nobody.

"Sara, did you see who it was?" Velma asked. "No, I couldn't see their face." Sara sighed.

"Like, what's that?" Shaggy asked, pointing to the trees; above the tree tops the gang saw smoke, but it wasn't like normal smoke, it was colourful and noticeable in the dark.

"Come on gang." Fred said, the gang headed through the trees to investigate the smoke.

* * *

"Hey, Daph. Do you recognise this route?" Fred asked. "Now that you mention it." Daphne replied.

"What are you talking about?" Velma asked. "Ok, so remember the last time we were here, and you, Shaggy and Scooby went to investigate the old barn with Ben Ravencroft? Daphne and I followed the Hex Girls. Well we followed Thorn to that house over there." Fred said, pointing into the distance, where they could see a little white house behind the trees, and smoke coming out of a chimney in shed.

"Jinkies." Velma said, pushing her glasses up, "This is Thorn's house?"

"Yep." Daphne said. The gang quietly crept through the trees and up to the house. Fred peered into the shed window, where he and Daphne watched Thorn mixing herbs a few years ago.

Fred looked through the window, "It's the Hex Girls." He whispered.

The gang peered through the window, and they watched the Thorn mixing some herbs in a bowl, and Dusk and Luna mumbling something, they couldn't hear what though.

Thorn stopped mixing and looked up at the girls who had stopped mumbling, then they stepped out of the shed and walked towards the trees; the gang followed.

"Like, this looks familiar too." Shaggy whispered as they followed the girls. "I know where we are." Velma said.

The trees thinned and the gang found themselves in a field, but they noticed some old wooden buildings, some of them destroyed. "Zoinks!" Shaggy gasped, "Like, isn't this the old filed where Ben was dragged back into the book?"

"It sure is." A familiar voice said, the gang looked over to where the Hex Girls were standing, in the middle of the field next to an old tree stump, with another woman; Cassie from the museum.

"Hello there, gang." She said, slyly. "I see you fell into my trap."

"Trap?" Sara asked. "I know, that you know that I'm the one who broke into the museum and stole those things. I also saw you hiding in the bushes outside the museum earlier, I knew you'd follow the smoke, and then follow the Hex Girls here." Cassie said.

"What have you done to them?" Velma asked, noticing something different about the Hex Girls; their pupils were red, and they didn't seem to be aware of anything that was happening.

"Oh," Cassie laughed, "They're under a spell."

"A spell?" Sara asked. "Why did you steal those things from the museum? And the book!" Velma asked.

Cassie pulled the book out from under her sweater, "I needed this, and I needed them." She said, as if it was obvious.

"What?" Fred asked. "Oh, I should probably explain. I needed the Hex Girls, mainly because Thorn is a wicken, and I needed them to mix some herbs for me. Wanna know why?" She asked.

"Like, I'm afraid t'ask." Shaggy said nervously, Scooby cowered behind him.

"You really think my name is Cassie?" She asked, "My real name is Cressida."

"Oh no." Sara said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Cressida Ravencroft." 'Cassie' said.

"Shit." Shaggy said.

"Ravencroft?" Velma asked. "Yes, Ravencroft!" Cressida exclaimed, "And you send my father into the book!"

"Like, Ben's your father?" Shaggy asked. "I just said that, didn't I?" Cressida said, sarcastically.

/"So, you need the book to bring your father back out of the book?" Daphne asked. "Correct, Red." Cressida said, "But first, there's something that I need to take care of."

It happened within seconds; the gang felt pain searing through their bodies, they collapsed onto the grass in such severe pain.

Except Sara and Scooby.

"Guys! What's going on?" Sara asked.

"Witch!" Shaggy exclaimed, Scooby nuzzling him, hoping it would help.

"Sara." Daphne cried. Sara looked up at Cressida, who laughed.

"The mortar and pestle were just a precaution for my plan, I knew you'd follow me, but I couldn't be sure." Cressida said.

"What?" Sara asked.

"I heard you guys were coming back to town." Cressida said, "So, I broke into your rooms whilst you were sleeping and stole the hairs from your hairbrushes."

"It's a comb!" Shaggy exclaimed, rolling on the grass in pain.

"Whatever, anyway I made the mistake of taking your hair sample, Blondie." Cressida said, bitterly.

"Lucky for me." Sara smirked, she kicked the book out of Cressida's hands and Scooby caught it. "Good boy." Sara said, patting his head.

"Really, this is the 21st century, you didn't think I wouldn't have that spell memorized." Cressida asked.

Sara smirked, then she flicked her fingers at Cressida, who was thrown backwards a few feet, and the gang were freed from the pain she had inflicted on them.

"Like, Sara, what was that?" Shaggy asked standing up and rubbing the grass stains off his shirt.

"I picked up a few tricks." She said.

"How!" Cressida screamed. "Never mind! Dreadful darkness, hear my cry-" She was cut off halfway through her spell by Sara.

"Tegrof lleps"

"Bring back…bring back…bring…no…no!" Cressida screamed.

"Like, what did you do?" Shaggy asked. "I think she made her forget the spell." Velma said, the gang looked at her, "What? I can speak 7 different languages; you don't think I know how to speak backwards?"

"You! You, _Sara_, you ruined my plans!" Cressida screamed.

"Ecnelis."

Cressida tried speaking but no sound was coming out.

"Ezeerf."

Cressida couldn't move.

"Like, you've got t'teach me that!" Shaggy exclaimed, Sara laughed, "Sure, but first, odnu lleps."

"Umm…like, what happened?" Thorn asked, coming out of the spell.

"Yeah, like we were setting up our herbal vapours and then we ended up here." Dusk said.

"Spooky." Luna added.

"It's a long story, turns out Cassie, a.k.a Cressida Ravencroft, stole the spell book and the herbs from the museum and then put you guys under a spell." Fred said.

"Heavy." Luna said, spookily.

* * *

"Sara, how did you do all those spells this evening?" Daphne asked.

Shaggy and Scooby were down at the snack bar, Velma was in her room reading and Fred was in the shower.

Daphne and Sara sat in Daphne and Fred's room.

Sara pulled a necklace out from her shirt; it was a pentagram on a black string.

"With this." She said.

"Where did you get that?" Daphne asked, "Wait from the assassins?"

"No, but I was working for them at the time. "Remember I told you about Magda?"

Daphne nodded.

"When I was 12, we were working in the Chilean mountains, but Magda slipped on a rock and broke her back, I couldn't move her. A woman found us and took us in. She was a witch, she helped Magda by using herbs and spells. Whilst Magda was recovering, the witch taught me spells, and she gave me this necklace. The necklace has the has the power." Sara said.

* * *

"Like, where's Daph?" Shaggy asked, eating the cream from his hot chocolate.

"She went to get some aspirin from the pharmacy, she's got a headache." Fred said.

"Good job ordering her pancakes, Fredster." Shaggy said. "Yeah, everyone loves pancakes." Sara said.

"I don't." Velma said, sipping her tea.

"Dude, like I've got a headache from last night." Shaggy said, "That magic stuff was crazy."

"Yeah, but now we know that witches are real." Velma said.

"Are you kidding?" Shaggy asked, "After everything we've been through, you still don't believe in the supernatural?"

Velma rolled her eyes.

Daphne stepped into the café and sat down at the table, her cheeks were flushed. "Hey, you ok?" Fred asked, Daphne nodded. "Just waiting for the aspirin to kick in."

Fred kissed her cheek, "Well, I drink your coffee, it's decaf, and I ordered you pancakes."

"I love you." She said. "I love you too." He said.

Jack brought breakfast over to the table, Shaggy was so distracted by his pile of pancakes and eggs and bacon, he didn't notice that Scooby had stolen his hot chocolate.

"Such a cute dog." Sara said, scratching behind his ears.

THE END

* * *

**A/N: I intended for this to be a multiple chapter fanfic, but I suffered major writers block so I decided to turn it into a big one-shot. But exciting news, the next fanfic to be uploaded will be Fraphne's Wedding on September 7th! **

**See you then!****!**


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